Amber Rudd: Women helping women, wherever they are

Amber Rudd, candidate for Hastings & Rye, reviews this year's CWO conference.

The Conservative Women’s Organisation (CWO) met for its annual conference on November 12th at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster.  The theme was billed as “creating a better world for future generations”.  The theme that I took away was that women in the Conservative Party can and should focus their attention on helping other women at home and abroad.  This was not about bread- making or child-care, but about the relevance and importance of women’s roles and skills in our world.

The Chairman of the Organisation, Fiona Hodgson, opened the day with a frank speech about what unites women and what the challenges are. Sometimes politicians duck the differences, not the CWO – the key one that Fiona highlighted was  that women as mothers, mostly have the responsibility of a family.  This inevitably colours their careers, their priorities and in distressing cases that we heard about, their vulnerability in war zones.  The point about the CWO she emphasised is that the women do so much more than make the sandwiches in the local Associations.  The sandwiches still need making, but our sights are set much higher as well.